Gilbert shared the story of how he found Alley during a recent interview with Taste of Country, recalling that, the first time he saw her, he thought she belonged to someone in the audience at a show. “There were some guys feeding her beer and bar food and stuff from the bar,” he remembered, “and kinda trying to get her drunk, and I thought it was that guy’s dog. And it got time for show time and I was out back doing a meet and greet, and they got ready to come inside for the show and he threw a beer bottle at her.”

Naturally, Gilbert stepped in. “At that point he was done with her,” he said. “I didn’t like that a bit so he and I had a little … conversation, I guess you could call it [laughs], and I called her to me. She came straight to me, and they fed her for me and kept her outside the bar, and when I was done with the show I took her to the hotel and had a friend of mine come pick her up in Alabama, and when I got home off the road she was mine.”